NEW DELHI: The over-enthusiasm displayed by Congress leaders over Rahul Gandhi leading the party's campaign in 2014 elections was evident on Friday, even as the Opposition raked up the results of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections to mock his track record.

Leading the pack of excited leaders was external affairs minister Salman Khurshid who said, "it's quite clear now who is our commander and sipah salaar in the fight that lies ahead... whose footsteps are we going to follow." Khurshid confirmed that the excitement was 'universal' in Congress. "You know the party is very excited; it has been demanding that apart from the work he has been doing with party youth and the support he is providing to Soniaji, he should now take charge," the senior Cabinet minister said.

There are a lot of expectations from the 42-year-old scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The party leadership expects him to re-energise the ranks and lead Congress to a third term. Party insiders, however, fear that high expectations could really be his undoing.

A day after the formal announcement of Rahul Gandhi leading the election coordination committee, the Opposition mocked him and raked up his failures, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar assembly elections. Claiming Congress was giving Rahul Gandhi too many chances, Janata Dal (United) spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari said, "except the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi, no one can see a spark in Rahul Gandhi."

BJP was even more scathing, saying that the party wished Rahul best of luck and hoped that he did not lead his party to another rout. "This is not Rahul's first assignment. Earlier under his leadership Congress fought UP and Bihar polls. Now he has been given the responsibility of overlseeing the general elections. We wish him all the best and hope that the outcome is not the same like the previous occasions," said BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain.

Rahul Gandhi would have three sub-committees reporting to him on state level alliances, election manifesto and media campaign. His own coordination group includes Congress president Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel, general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, union minister Jairam Ramesh, trusted advisor Digvijaya Singh and Madhusudhan Mistry. The Congress president is likely to conduct a reshuffle of her core team at AICC to prepare a team for Rahul .